Posted by PS on July 23, 2004 at 16:49:04:
In Reply to: Dostoevsky posted by giveawayboy on July 23, 2004 at 15:15:01:
: : You could of course add Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, who, though 19th-century contemporaries, are quite different as to how their faith informed their fiction. I generally prefer Dostoevsky, who is less agenda-explicit in his portrayals of the dark side of human nature and faith in juxtaposition. I say juxtaposition, because some see a portrayal of faith in the context of fallen humanity, and others see a portrayal of fallen humanity in the context of faith. It works both ways (assuming one recognizes the salvation themes at all).
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: Go Steve Go! I totally agree w you about Dostoevsky. By the way, had a dream w you in it the other night. You and I were going to some class and you were pretty excited about it. I think some of our friends were with us.
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Cool! Also glad some friends were with us. I'd love to get a bunch of them in classes. ;-) Sali is a Religious Studies major at USF now.
I really am excited about the masters classes I have coming up next month. I am taking the "Dead Sea Scrolls" and "Formative Christianity" (development of the church), both from Dr. Strange. Also have a research-based course on teaching methods, and I am a teaching assistant in "Intro to World Religions." I have to get a new laptop so I can carry my "life" around with me. ;-)
I am working on two thesis projects, and I have no clue which I will use for my masters thesis. The first is on the need for (and lack of) the study and validation of authentic religious experience in New Testament scholarship, this study being correlated with the study of the phenomenology of religions, universals in religious experience, and true objectivity vs. the religious experience of the scholar. Of the many scholars considered in the three correlative areas, I build most on Joachin Wach.
The second is an examination of the development of the "new perspective" in Pauline studies, considering the various theories proposed since the Holocaust in addressing the decontextualized misinterpretation of Paul's theology long embraced by the church (with its concordant anti-Judaic tendencies), inadequately understood through the lenses of Augustine and Luther, resulting in the post-Reformation interpretational model that Krister Stendahl neatly dubbed "the introspective conscience of the West."
BTW, "19th-Century Russian Literature" was one of my favorite under-grad non-Religious Studies courses. I did term projects on Crime and Punishment--first on the salvation/resurrection themes and the "repentance" of Raskolnikov, followed by a more in-depth analysis of his dual natures.